


Put some SOUL into it!

by SesuRescue (Kigachan)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Canon, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 21:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13773057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kigachan/pseuds/SesuRescue
Summary: After learning that the new skeleton in town was his Soulmate, Grillby decided to do some snooping around and finds himself in the library attending one of the monthly reading circles.





	Put some SOUL into it!

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the Snowed In event run by the [ True-reset-server ](http://true-reset-server.tumblr.com) on tumblr! <3

The bell chimed as Grillby walked through the doors of the library, stamping his feet softly against the cheery welcome mat to displace the snow from his boots. As he started to remove the layers of his scarf from his face one of the librarians shambled over to the welcome desk, sighing heavily as they began their spiel about the misspelled sign--one that Grillby has heard a handful of times now. **  
**

“Welcome to the library. Yes, we know the sign is--oh! Hello Grillby!” They interrupted their speech when Grillby removed the last layer of his scarf, revealing his flaming face. He draped the scarf around his shoulders before nodding and raising a hand in greeting to the lizard librarian, one of the two that he actually interacted with on a semi-regular basis. “I haven’t seen you in awhile, how have you been?”

Grillby shrugged, tilting his head in the direction of his restaurant down the road.

“Oh right, of course; you’ve been so busy running your business. But it’s good that there’s a place for people to eat around here.” They coughed, adjusting their glasses before continuing. “So why are you here today? A book perhaps? Maybe you need more boxes?”

Grillby jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the small area in the middle of the floor, a circle of pillows gracing the otherwise plain carpet. The librarian hummed before leaning closer to Grillby, cocking an eyebrow up as if they were sharing a great secret with him. “Ahh, the reading circle? Today it’s being led by one of those skeleton brothers, the taller one I believe. The town has been buzzing with talk about those two ever since they moved in.”

Grillby nodded; the shopkeeper who sold him his produce--Donna, if he recalled correctly-- told him last week that a new pair of monsters strolled into town and bought a house, just like that. Then they started going around and...asserting themselves. He wouldn’t have believed it himself had he not met them the night they moved in. Suddenly, he was grateful that that bit of news hadn't started making its rounds in town yet.

“So,” The librarian began again, moving back to their prior position. “They’ll be starting in about ten minutes or so, so feel free to wander around and browse until then.”

Nodding once more, Grillby headed for the back of the library, sitting down on one of the step stools as he waited for the skeleton to appear. While he waited, he allowed his mind to wander back to the other night to when he met the skeleton brothers and accidentally found his soulmate in the mix.

It had been a regular sort of night; the guard dogs were playing poker at their table, Ugly Fish was grumbling to Red Bird about no one calling them (they might have more luck had they not attached their picture every day, Grillby though but declined to mention), and Drunk Bun was drooped over his counter, drool leaking out of her open mouth as she lamented the lack of hot guys around. Grillby stood behind the bar, keeping an eye on the premises and cleaning a glass when the door opened, revealing a new monster.

The monster, who Grillby had assumed was one of the new ones he had been told about, shuffled over in their pink slippers to the bar counter, hoisting themselves up in the chair. They turned to look at Grillby, permanent skeleton smile twitching slightly upward. “you grillby, th’ name on th’ sign?” Their voice rumbled from their closed mouth, the tone pleasing to him.

Grillby nodded. Placing the glass on the counter, he bent down to grab a menu and slid it over to the skeleton.

“thanks, bud,” they said, winking a socket before looking down at the menu.

As the night went on, Grillby learned a few things about his new guest, Sans. For one, he didn’t seem to want anything other than ketchup, based on the fact that he had gone straight for the ketchup bottle when Grillby placed down his order of fries. Grillby had watched in disgust as Sans unscrewed the cap and tipped the bottle over into his still closed grin.

The second and more interesting thing that he learned was that drinking too much ketchup seemed to have an almost...inebriating effect on the skeleton. After he downed a few bottles, Sans had slid off his chair and wandered around the restaurant, chatting up the other patrons, who had wary of his presence until then. Grillby watched curiously from the counter as Sans quickly charmed his way through the crowd, telling puns left and right to anyone who would listen, and even managing to charm the entire Royal Canine Unit with well-placed scratches and poker advice.

Right when Sans started to crawl back into his seat the door slammed open, revealing a second skeleton who Grillby could only assume was his sibling. They were much taller than Sans, dressed more appropriately for the weather with long pants and a thick jacket. They looked around the restaurant, eye sockets narrowed as they took in the decor. After a moment they let out a disgusted sound and stomped over to the counter, face somehow scrunching up with every step.

They looked over the counter before directing their attention to Grillby. “IT’S LIKE A PURGATORY FOR HAMBURGERS AND FRIES HERE…” They complained, gesturing to the rest of the bar with a large sweep of their arm. “IS EVERYTHING COATED IN GREASE?”

Grillby stared at them, mouth gaping open in shock. Usually, he didn’t give any attention to someone slamming on his restaurant; he received a lot of regular patrons so one person not liking his stuff didn’t matter. However, he couldn’t ignore these words...this specific phrase that had been written on the left side of his chest from birth.

This skeleton was his soulmate.

His mouth moved uselessly as he stared at the taller skeleton, trying to figure out how to speak again and failing. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily for him, Red Bird noticed his shocked state and decided to stall.

“Uh...Grillby said that he likes the way grease feels on his flames.”

The tall skeleton tutted. “HOW UNHEALTHY. ANYWAY, IT’S TIME TO GO, BROTHER, YOU HAVE TO READ TO ME!”

“oh, right right. go ahead and put this on my tab, grillbz,” Sans said, sliding out of the chair.

Grillby had watched the two leave, not having the mental capability to inform Sans that he did not, in fact, have tabs in his restaurant, nor was he about to start now. His eyes followed the taller skeleton with interest, watching him put a hand on his hip and scold his brother for something that he couldn’t hear.

“Hey, Grillby.”

Grillby jumped slightly, shaking his head and turning to whoever called his name. He seamlessly switched back into his standard bartending persona, but he couldn’t help his thoughts from drifting back to the tall skeleton throughout the night. Even once he had finally closed the restaurant for the night and retreated back to his flat, he wondered what kind of monster his soulmate was. He had always figured that they either had an odd sense of humor and might’ve been a neat freak from the words written on him, but that skeleton had seemed...kind of abrasive.

Grillby had decided that he needed to figure out what kind of monster Papyrus was, and so the next day he asked around town about them. Unfortunately, other than what the shopkeeper knew, there wasn’t much other information about them. According to Politics Bear (PB), the taller skeleton would leave their house early in the morning to wander into the forest, and Sans would shamble out in the afternoon to check one of the mailboxes (“For some reason he never took out any of the mail from the other one,” PB remarked.), before heading back inside.

That night Sans came back to his restaurant and did more or less the same thing he had done before: talked to the patrons, drained Grillby of his ketchup supply, and drunkenly punned at his seat for a few hours before, once again, his brother came in to pick him up, nodding politely to Grillby as he dragged Sans out of the bar.

On the fourth night of this repeated occurrence, Grillby finally decided to ask Sans about his brother.

“papyrus? he’s my younger bro, love ‘im to death.” Sans had said, nursing his third bottle of ketchup for the night.

Grillby turned to Red Bird, opening his mouth to emit a variety of pops and crackles. Red Bird watched intensely, eyes flitting from Grillby’s mouth to the dancing flames on the top of his head. When Grillby was done, Red Bird translated for him.

“Grillby asked about Papyrus, and what he does in his free time.”

“does a bit of this and that. he’s tryin’ to become a sentry in the royal guard, so he’s been practicin’ his traps for catchin’ a human. other than that...i think he volunteered to read in the librarby tomorrow if you’re interested.”

Grillby was, in fact,  interested, and now here he was, in the library, waiting for Papyrus to arrive for the reading. So far the circle was occupied by a few children: a small bunny (complete with a leash for some reason), the armless child that ran around town frequently, and the slime kids from across the way, and more were coming in through the door with their parents in tow. His flames perked up as Donna, the shopkeeper he usually interacted with, walked in with her children, watching as she deposited them in the circle and headed his way.

“Hey there Grillby, ya’ll here to check out the reading circle, huh? Didn’t know you were interested in that sort of thing,” she said, taking a seat beside him.

Grillby shrugged his shoulders, lifting his hands to convey confusion before pointing at the shop bunny and cocking his head.

“Oh, you’re right, I don’t usually stay for these either, but--” Donna leaned in-- “I couldn’t resist the chance to see the new skeleton, and  I think all the other parents have the same idea.”

After taking a look around at the crowded library, Grillby nodded in agreement.

“Well, he should be arriving here soon enough,” she remarked, picking up her bag and rummaging through it. After pulling out a skein of yarn and a pair of knitting needles she placed the bag back down on the floor and winked at Grillby. “It should be interesting, at least.”

Grillby and Donna sat in relative silence as they waited, knitting needles clacking against each other every now and again as Donna worked on...whatever she happened to be working on; it was a little too early for Grillby to tell. He wasn’t really paying attention anyway, eyes glued to the entrance of the Library, waiting for the object of his obsessions to come through the door.

Finally, after a few more children wandered into the circle, the door burst open and the tall skeleton strolled into the library, stopping at the welcome desk to interact with the librarian.

“HELLO, SORRY THAT I WAS ALMOST LATE. I HAD TO RETRIEVE THE BOOK FOR THE READING TODAY.” Papyrus boomed, nearly startling everyone out of their seat.

The librarian stared down over their glasses at Papyrus, unmoved by the loudness. “We already have a book ready for that.”

“YES, I’VE READ THROUGH IT MULTIPLE TIMES, BUT I THINK THE BOOK I BROUGHT IS BETTER.”

“Oh? What book is it then? I’ll need to make sure it fits our requirements.”

Grillby watched as Papyrus reached into his jacket and procured a large book from inside, passing it over to the librarian. From where Grillby was sitting he could see that the book was old and possibly well loved. The spine had been stitched together by what looked like a novice hand with strips of a different colored thread, and as the librarian leafed through the book he could see several pages that had been dog-eared at some point with large creases on the corners. That book must be very important to him, Grillby concluded.

“Okay, I think this is okay,” they closed the book and handed it back to Papyrus. “You can go sit in the circle and began whenever you’re ready.”

“THANK YOU VERY MUCH!” Papyrus saluted the librarian before walking over and taking a seat on the last empty cushion. “HELLO SMALL MONSTERS, ARE YOU READY FOR A RIVETING STORY ABOUT LOVE, LOSS, AND ACCEPTANCE?”

The children in the circle exchanged confused glances with each other, some even turning around to get feedback from their parents, before nodding hesitantly. Encouraged by the response, Papyrus flipped over the book to display the cover to the crowd, turning it to the left and right so that everyone could see it. “TODAY WE ARE GOING TO BE READING ‘FLUFFY BUNNY’. IT IS A STORY THAT MY BROTHER READ TO ME WHEN I WAS A BABYBONES AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT TOO.”

Papyrus cleared his throat (or at least made a sound similar to that) before opening the book to the first page and beginning to read. Grillby kept his eyes peeled on Papyrus as he read to the children, surprised that this skeleton who seemed so callous could be so...nice? His voice, while loud, was gentle somehow, reading through the words with the practice of someone who knew the book forward and back to the point that he could actually keep the book turned towards the kids the entire time while he recited it from memory.

Despite not really caring about the story at first, as the reading went on Grillby found himself falling further and further into the storyline. He gasped with the rest of the children when Fluffy Bunny had run away from home and encountered a snake, laughed when the bunny had slipped over a banana peel, and just about cried when Fluffy Bunny was reunited with their family again. Based on the sniffling from beside him, Grillby figured that he wasn’t the only one affected by it.

“--AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE END!”

Papyrus closed the book, carefully maneuvering around the small, fluffy dog that jumped into his lap somewhere around the middle of the story to put his book back into his jacket. Grillby watched as the parents went to retrieve their children, all of them stopping to say a few words to Papyrus before disappearing out the door. Even Donna managed to politely embrace him, patting him on the back a few times before corralling her children out with her.

Grillby waited until the library was nearly empty before standing up and brushing off the bottom of his pants. Even though he didn’t get a chance to interact with Papyrus, he did manage to see a good side of the skeleton today. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad having a soulmate like him, after all? Well, it wasn’t like he was going to tell him anytime soon; this was a secret he didn’t mind keeping to himself for a while, at least until he sorted out all of his thoughts.

As Grillby began the long process of wrapping his face up in his scarf, he heard the sound of heavy footsteps approach him, along with the jittering of bones knocking against each other. “HELLO! DID YOU ENJOY THE READING?”

Grillby nodded distractedly as he wrapped the material around his mouth. “.........it was a wonderful read.”

“NYEH HEH HEH, A GENUINE COMPLIMENT! ONLY THE BEST FOR THE GREAT--HOLD ON. THAT PHRASE…” Papyrus eye'd him for the briefest of moments, sockets squinted before they blew wide in shock. “IT’S YOU! YOU’RE MY SOULMATE!!” Papyrus screeched, clapping his hands over his mouth.

Blushing bright blue, Grillby nodded again, ignoring the tiny gasps emitted by the librarians at the desk.

“DID YOU KNOW?”

Another nod.

“HOW?!”

Casting a quick glance at the others in the library, Grillby shook his head and picked up the end of his scarf again. He tucked it into his jacket before grabbing Papyrus’ hand. “.........Not here. Come with me.”

Grillby led Papyrus out of the library and through the town towards his restaurant. The entire time he could feel his flames flaring brightly on his cheeks, embarrassment blossoming through his body from the way he was practically displaying to the entire town his involvement with the skeleton through their tightly clasped hands.

Once they reached the side door of his building, Grillby quickly pulled out his key and unlocked it, gesturing for Papyrus to enter. Once they were both inside Grillby took off his jacket and made for the back room with Papyrus, waiting for the door to close behind them before he started to unbutton his shirt.

“WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Papyrus asked, scandalized. “ARE YOU TRYING TO SEDUCE ME? BECAUSE THAT’S A LITTLE UNNECESSARY DON’T YOU THINK?”

Ignoring the comment, Grillby unbuttoned a few more buttons on his shirt to reveal his chest. He pushed the left side of his shirt to the side, showing the words to Papyrus. After a few seconds of reading, Papyrus straightened up and pulled his jacket sleeve up, displaying his forearm to Grillby. As he thought, the words he uttered to Papyrus were written plain as day across the bone.

“WELL, LOOKS LIKE WE'RE SOULMATES!”

Grillby smiled, opening his mouth a little to make it more pronounced. He took Papyrus’ hand in his own, brushing his gloved fingers along the back of it before pressing it to his abdomen. His SOUL pulsed happily underneath the bony fingers as he stepped closer to Papyrus, staring down at his clothed chest. “......... Can I…?” Grillby asked, gesturing to it.

Papyrus allowed Grillby to press his head against the center of his ribcage, and after a moment Grillby could hear the tell-tale thumping of the other’s SOUL beat. “......... Wow.”

“I KNOW, RIGHT?”

The two of them separated reluctantly, brushing their fingertips against one another as they stepped back into a comfortable distance away from each other. Grillby took a deep breath to calm his sudden nerves, wondering what the next step for them would be. Should they move in together, or maybe it would be better to go through a courting period of sorts to get to know each other?

Before he could ask, Papyrus cleared his throat (seriously, how does he keep doing that?) and held out his hand.

“HELLO! I AM PAPYRUS SKELETON AND I AM YOUR SOULMATE! I LIKE DINOSAUR OATMEAL AND WAKING UP EARLY TO GREET THE DAY. ONE DAY I WILL JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD AND CATCH A HUMAN. IT'S A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU!”

Grillby chuckled, sparks spitting out from his open mouth as he shook Papyrus’ hand. “......... Hi, I'm Grillby Fire, and I am your soulmate. It takes a lot for me to talk like this, so I usually communicate through gestures and expressions. I like working and curling up with a good book after I finish for the evening. I don't really have any grand aspirations, just living day to day and seeing what it brings me.”

“......... It's fantastic to finally meet you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> feel free to bother me at my NSFW tumblr: [Sesurescue](http://Sesurescue.tumblr.com)


End file.
